Throughout the years, Aborted has definitely changed their material around. The group went from a very brutal and raw sounding group that left an unquestionable dominated presence with every spin of their early material, to a rather clean sounding audio act that looked to the more popular Deathcore acts for their material, or so it would seem at least to the loyal fan. Global Flatline makes for the band’s latest release, joining the Century Media family to put this effort out. To mark the occassion and help spread the word of the new release, the title track, “Global Flatline,” was made available for download on various webstores for a simple low price to get fans and eager Brutal Death Metal horders ready for what’s to come. But, does this track show off a more traditional modern Deathcore presence, or will we finally see a return of the intensity that was the glory days of Aborted?

Aborted do seem to keep some of the progression they’ve made in the audio of the release, which is expected for today. “Global Flatline” shows a rather sleek sounding modern recording with a rather clean sound that makes the music sound sharper, though not taking away any of the heaviness that makes it so enjoyable. In standard Death Metal fashion, the track opens up with an atmosphere setting audio sample of news reports with creepy keyboards suiting to a budget Horror film, kicking in with some crushing brutal riffs that also feel a bit commonplace for the Deathcore brand, slowly building up to the crash of the music. The cymbols come through loudly with machine gun blast bass kicks that hold a loud click against snares that share that same volume and sound rather tight, though a bit lost against the kicks. Much of the track suffers from just being constant blastbeats mixed with some passages of groovey Death Metal that borders a bit on the Brutal side, though you can still hear some background chugging against the furious material. The guitars sound fantastic, especially during the solo which is a bit higher pitch then the standard Death Metal distortion heavy guitars that don’t quite come through as bludgeoning, even with the additional help of the bass that feels pretty strong in the mix too, but given the cacaphony of the song it doesn’t add much other then backing up those guitars. The vocals show a great range as well, going between a not-so-deep guttural approach you might expect to hear from a Deathcore band or an act like Job for a Cowboy now then anything else, as well as some screaming parts when it actually works with the music.

But, overall, “Global Flatline” is just an energetic, brutal assault that, while doesn’t do much that you could call it a unique experience, definitely offers the listener a creepy atmosphere that feels like it’s hammering away at you with as much blunt force as possible while using what typically makes the style so powerful in the strongest of manners. It may not be as soul crushing as the band’s early material, but it far surpasses anything the group has issued lately. The tight music and solid performance coupled with the vibe that the group is performing this song with pride and not simply to fill time on an album or anything like that really shows off what Aborted is possible of, and definitely deserves the attention of any self respecting fan of their older material, or even the Brutal Death Metal genre..